Malaysia's highest court yesterday began hearing a landmark
appeal against the jailing of former deputy prime minister Anwar
Ibrahim, a case with potentially dramatic implications for the future
of the Mahathir Government.

There are high expectations in Malaysian legal and opposition
circles that the Federal Court will overturn a key plank of Mr
Anwar's 15-year sentence for abuse of power and sexual
misconduct.

A three-member bench, headed by reformist Chief Justice
Dzaiddin Abdullah, is considering fresh evidence disputing
charges that Mr Anwar abused his office by directing police to
pressure witnesses to withdraw accusations against him of sodomy
and sexual misconduct.

If the court were to overturn or reduce Mr Anwar's sentence for
corruption - the first of two appeals - the government would face
intense pressure to release the charismatic politician, who was
once Dr Mahathir Mohamad's heir apparent.

Despite recent signs of flagging support for allied opposition
parties, Mr Anwar is still seen as the rival most capable of breaking
Dr Mahathir's grip on power.

Last year the same three judges hearing this appeal overturned a
contempt conviction against one of Anwar's lawyers who accused
authorities of fabricating evidence.

In their ruling, the judges strongly criticised the chief prosecutor in
the case, Abdul Gani Patail, who was recently appointed
Malaysia's Attorney-General.

"This is a real test for the court and its independent chief justice,"
said one of a group of Western diplomats who were in court
yesterday to observe the hearing.

The United States, which has led international accusations that Mr
Anwar's prosecution was politically motivated, recently renewed its
criticism of his original trials and urged the Federal Court to make
amends.

"We are watching the appeals for Anwar very closely ... We do not
think that he had fair trials the two times that he went to court,"
American ambassador to Malaysia Marie Hutala told the
independent Internet news service Malaysiakini last month.

"It could be corrected in the appeal process."

Riot police, backed by water cannon trucks, were on standby
outside the court in central Kuala Lumpur yesterday as several
hundred Anwar supporters cheered his arrival for the hearing,
which had been postponed four times over the past year.

He was surrounded by family and friends as he entered the
courtroom in a wheelchair, his neck and back braced to protect a
persistent back injury he claims was the result of a police beating
after his arrest in September 1998. In a brief conversation with
journalists, he laughed off recent reports that he had been involved
in secret talks with Dr Mahathir on a deal to secure his release.

"I had a lot of conversations, but that was before he had me
arrested," he said.

Mr Anwar's lawyers yesterday told the court that they would
present new evidence.

The evidence would show that four charges of corruption against
Mr Anwar were not credible and that the case had been
manipulated by police.

The charges involved claims that, before his sacking by Dr
Mahathir, Mr Anwar had ordered the head and deputy head of the
police special branch to pressure his former driver and the sister of
his private secretary to withdraw statements in which they claimed
to have had sexual relations with him.

According to prosecution evidence, the two had recanted their
allegations - later reaffirmed - after the special branch officers had
"neutralised and turned them over" and their statements had been
delivered directly to Dr Mahathir at his office.

One of Mr Anwar's lawyers, Raja Aziz Addruse, said yesterday it
would be demonstrated that the evidence given by the special
branch officers had been embellished and that "the two lacked
credibility altogether".

The hearing is due to continue for several days.

A date has still to be fixed for a separate appeal against Mr
Anwar's conviction for sodomy and sexual misconduct.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Jailed Malaysian politician Anwar
Ibrahim began on Tuesday the second day of a final appeal against
corruption convictions, with fewer supporters and police turning out
as he arrived in court.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar, sacked by Prime Minister
Mahathir Mohamad in 1998 and sentenced to 15 years in prison for
sodomy and corruption, has seen support wane in recent months for
his "reformasi" opposition movement.

A subdued-looking Anwar waved briefly to a dozen or so
mostly-silent supporters as he arrived at the court complex, walking
gingerly and wearing a neck brace and lumbar support to protect a
slipped disc in his back.

The hearings, due to run until Thursday, concern convictions on
four counts of corruption, or abuse of power, for which Anwar is
serving a six-year term.

Even if acquitted, Anwar will stay in jail for his nine-year term on
the sodomy conviction, which he is also fighting.

On Monday, defence counsel Raja Aziz Addruse rejected the
charge his client tried to influence Special Branch police officers
during an investigation into his sexual conduct.

"Call it direction, call it request, it never happened," he told the
court.

The three Federal Court judges, headed by Chief Justice Mohamed
Dzaiddin Abdullah, may rule immediately or reserve their decision
for weeks or even months.

Muslim youth groups and urban intellectuals support Anwar, but he
seems doomed to watch his former mentor consolidate support as
he paints the fundamentalist opposition Parti Islam se-Malaysia,
which also backs Anwar, as being soft on militancy.

Mahathir has drawn political strength from a backlash against
Muslim fundamentalism following the September 11 hijacked aircraft
attacks on the United States.

Anwar's court appearance in 1998 with bruises and a black eye,
and subsequent trials, sparked outrage at home and abroad.

Washington called him a political prisoner, adding its voice to those
of other governments and human rights groups in criticising the
treatment and trial of Mahathir's heir apparent.

But Mahathir said the trials were fair and called his ex-deputy and
finance minister immoral and unfit to rule.

Malaysia's jailed former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim
arrives at the courthouse for a final appeal against corruption
convictions in Kuala Lumpur on February 5. - REUTERS/Zainal Abdul Halim

Note: Anwar was recently tipped as a possible Nobel Peace Prize
winner by Svein Toennesson, director of the independent
International Peace Research Institute in Oslo, who said the
committee might try to show the U.S.-led war against terrorism is
not a war against Islam. - Reuters